Planning - It's What I Do.

Isn’t it funny how life never turns out the way you expect it to? In high school, I thought I’d graduate college, move to Chicago, meet the man of my dreams right away and get married at 25. Then naturally, after two years, I’d have kids, quit my job and stay home with them to be the ultimate homemaker. Sounds pretty perfect, right?


Insert sarcastic laughs here.

Obviously, my life has turned out nothing like I thought it would. I moved to Nashville after college – a place that wasn’t even on my list of places to move. I did a job that I wasn’t crazy about for more than three years. I did meet a guy right away – but unfortunately, it wasn’t the right one. Since I’m rapidly approaching 27, I clearly didn’t get married at 25…and I’m not anywhere close to getting married. I don’t have kids and Martha Stewart would be embarrassed by my homemaking.

To be honest, when I compare the difference of where I thought I would be and where I actually am, it makes me a little depressed. But then, I look back at the past four years and think of what I would have missed if my life had gone according to MY plan. I never would have lived in the South…which means I wouldn’t have met Jen & Stacia – who are now more like sisters than friends. I wouldn’t be “Aunt Linny” to an adorable Babykins. I wouldn’t have learned to stand on my own two feet. I never would have learned my limits with relationships and wouldn’t be able to see the beauty in starting over. I wouldn’t have my perfect puppy, or the job experience I needed to get where I am. And most importantly, I wouldn’t have learned how to forgive or about God’s never-ending grace.

So, while it can be disheartening to compare my life to MY plan…it’s the opposite when I compare it to God’s plan. I needed to take a detour to see how amazing my life really is. As much as I love to plan things (um, I do it for a living!), my plans pale in comparison to His.

God’s plan for my life is perfect. Mine is not. End of story.

He knows who I’ll marry and at what time…and when it’s right, it will be right. He knows where we’ll live, how many kids we’ll be blessed with and what kind of life we’ll lead. Once I started realizing this, it became so much easier to be happy with where I am in life. My life is never going to be perfect – but it’s through the imperfections that I learn more about myself, God and grace. I think that’s a pretty good trade-off…

“The struggles make us stronger and the changes make us wise.

Happiness has its own way of taking its sweet time.

Life ain’t always beautiful, but it’s a beautiful ride.”

~ Gary Allan

Sarah's Toast...

~Since this is a scrapbook of my life (which looks like swiss cheese right now b/c I've been neglecting it), I wanted to remember the toast I gave my cousin, Sarah, at her wedding.  Since I couldn't make it to the real wedding in Chile, I got to give mine at the rewedding in Chicago with our whole family there. As much as I hate having all eyes on me, it was so fun to get up there and talk about my cousin! I'll be doing a full post of all sorts of fun pictures from the wedding and an update on what's going on with life soon...I promise. ~

"For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Sarah’s cousin, Lindsay. Sarah originally asked me to say a few words at the wedding in Chile, but due to a seriously untimely move and even more untimely earthquake, I couldn’t be there for that wedding. So, words cannot describe how thrilled I am to have everyone here to celebrate my amazing cousin and her new husband.

I’m sure most of you know or have met my little brother, Landon. Unfortunately, my parents (along with Sarah’s) didn’t get the memo that the minimum amount of children in the Erwin/Schoenherr clan is 4. So Sarah and I both grew up with one brother each. While brothers are great…they’re not sisters. They don’t like playing dress-up with you, will run and scream when you try to do their make-up and generally, point and laugh when your uncle throws you in the seaweed at camp. However, I don’t feel like I missed out on having a sister at all…because I had Sarah.

Being exactly 7 months apart in age, we did a lot of fun things growing up together. Aside from playing the Barbie game with our aunts, our favorite pastime was playing dress-up. Both of our dress-up closets were quite extensive…full of old bridesmaid dresses, flower girl dresses and random costumes. Out of ALL of those outfits…one always stood out. The famed wedding dress. Sarah and I LOVED to play “bride.” I have vivid memories of us running around my old house having very serious arguments about who was going to marry Maccaulley Culkin or Jordan Knight (the cutest New Kid on the Block, obviously.) For the record, I’m pretty sure that both us, and our parents, are glad that neither of us married MacCaulley Culkin. But now, here we are, years later, and Sarah gets to play “Bride” one last time…and this time it’s for real. Tomorrow, she’ll recommit to Pipe to be his bride forever.

I have to admit that when Sarah initially told me she was dating someone from Chile, I was skeptical. Then, she brought Pipe to the lake. For those of you not in our family, this is the ultimate test of a dating relationship. The time at the lake will tell you everything you need to know about the person in question. Our family is massive, as I’m sure you’ve noticed today. With 26 kids running around at all times, it’s a ton of fun. But it’s also pure chaos. If you haven’t grown up with this, it can be hard to handle. Lesser men and women have crumbled under the serious pressure. Added to this was the fact that Pipe spoke very little English at the time. To all of our amazement, Pipe didn’t flinch the entire weekend. There were kids jumping all over him, people all around speaking a language he didn’t understand, and a “graduation” ceremony for Landon & Sarah done in traditional family style. Pipe did not bat an eye at the entire event... He was even a favorite to throw the little ones around in the water…a huge honor in the Erwin/Schoenherr family. At the end of that weekend, all of my questions were answered…I knew they’d end up getting married. And here we are, three years later. They make it work every day and despite the unique challenges their relationship presents, they make it look easy and effortless.

I’ll wrap up with this: In college, I was having a really hard time with a relationship. Of course, I was talking back and forth with Sarah and she said something that has stayed with me almost 8 years later. You said to me “Lindsay, someday some guy will look at you and say ‘I see Christ in her’ and THAT’S what will attract him to you.” Sarah, I know without a doubt that Pipe looked at you in your first class in Chile and saw Christ in you, because it’s simply impossible not to. You radiate love, acceptance and of course, joy. You are the closest thing to a sister that I will ever have and for that, I am so blessed. You’ve been there for me in all stages of life…in good times and in bad. I absolutely could not be happier for you and Pipe to have found each other and get continue your life together. I pray that you’ll be blessed beyond measure and will always look to each other for love, comfort and laughs. From what I’ve seen of the two of you in the past few years, this will be no problem at all. I wish you all the best, because you both deserve it."

And a look at what's to come....

Viva Las Vegas

With quitting the crappy old job and beginning new awesome job, I had a little bit of time off for some R&R. Coincidentally, Jason hadn't used much of his time off for the year either. So, we hopped several flights to Vegas.

After our direct flight to Vegas filled up unexpectedly, we took a roundabout way. From Chicago, we flew to Vancouver - as in Canada. Thank goodness my cousin forced me to get a new passport. After landing at 11:30pm (1:30am our time), we needed a hotel room for less than 5 hours because we had an early morning plane to catch. Enter shady front desk agent at the H. Inn. We may or may not have paid half the actual price of the hotel room under the table. I cannot confirm nor deny. Either way, less than four hours later, we were out the door to catch our next flight. You might think it would be to Las Vegas, Nevada. But you'd be wrong. It was to Denver, Colorado.

After a short layover in Denver, we finally headed to Las Vegas. And planner Lindsay didn't have a place to stay. My nerves were shot at this point after less than 3 hours of sleep, more than 6 hours on planes and a serious lack of planning. We actually booked a hotel room in the Las Vegas airport, right before hopping in a cab to said hotel. We ended up staying at Bally's for a few reasons. One: It was dirt cheap. Two: My friend Corty works there as a beverage director and hooked us up with plenty of free food and drinks. Score.

The first night after catching up with Corty, she scored us free tickets to the world premier of The Expendables at Planet Hollywood. We were pretty excited to see the movie stars (Hello, Jason Statham) in real life and to see a good action flick. OH. MY. GOSH. We were so wrong. The movie was A.W.F.U.L. Seriously...just bad. The only reason we were both able to stay awake was because of all the explosions in the movie. Also, you know it's going to be a classy movie when someone's entire torso is blown off in the first 2 minutes of the movie. Lesson learned.

We got to walk all around the strip the next day in the insane Vegas heat (I did love the no humidity thing though.) The Venetian was absolutely stunning and it's just not fair to have Christian Louboutin AND Coach in the same vicinity. Jason had to drag me out of the stores reminding me that I don't need $1000 pumps and $500 handbags. (But I want them...) After getting some lunch, we hit the casino. And by "we" I mean "Jason." I'm not much of a gambler because I don't quit while I'm ahead (much like my life.) Within 5 minutes of playing slots, Jason has won $50. Not only did he win it playing slots, but he won it on the SEX & THE CITY SLOT MACHINE! If anyone should have won that, it should have been me (or Ann)! After losing five dollars, I decided it was more important for me to go shopping and him to go win me some money at the poker tables. Afterwards we went to a very yummy dinner at Neros in Caesar's Palace (which IS beeper friendly, BTW). Then Corty took us downtown to Old Vegas and she and I played the Wizard of Oz slots for a while and caught up on our exremely boring lives.

I can't believe it'd been almost two years since I'd last seen her on our cruise! Time flies and it had been way too long - which it will not be again. We definitely missed having Brian around, but hopefully we'll plan another Midnight Homework Club reunion soon :)

Finally, on our last day, I hung out at the pool for a few hours and Jase played some more poker. We met up for a quick dinner and then caught the Zumanity Show at New York New York. The show, while a little risque for my taste, was unbelievable. I have new desire to take up the flying ribbons because it was so unbelieveable. Also, New York New York hotel was really fun as well! I think I'd stay there if I ever went back just because it is literally exactly like New York! We caught the final Bellagio water show on the way back played to one of my absolute favorite songs "Conte Partiro" by Andrea Bocelli. That water show is NOT underrated whatsoever and was one of my favorite things all weekend. I could have watched it for hours!

It was such a fabulous trip and I'm glad we got to get away for a few days before the new job starts! Of course, I was glad to be able to fly home (first class, direct flight!) to get back to my puppy! Sorry about the lack of pictures...I have them, blogspot just hates when I try to format them!!  I'll keep trying though :)